Grounding Plates

[Blue_Heron]

Originally Posted by Finster

...It's no biggy replacing the caviltation plate zinc once a month if I can't find anything.

If you're going through zinks at that rate, there's probably something wrong. Water Rat's right about the bronze. If it's in the water, it's only going to make things worse.

If there are other boats moored close by, one or more of them may be introducing stray current into the water. I'm not sure how you would check that. Maybe if you put on Capt. Chuck's zinc plated undies, stick a toe in the water and lick the negative battery terminal. If it tingles there's probably stray current.

An alternative is to use an induced current system (to fix the galvanic corrosion, not to find the stray current). Merc makes one for the Bravo drives called Mercathode. It seems to have fixed the corrosion problems they were having. I don't know if it will fit an Alpha, but it probably won't. There might be a way to rig it, though.

Dave